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Penn State Provost's Award

Replies to: Penn State Provost's Award

There have been murmurings and complaints about some PItt awards too. It used to be a sure thing with certain stats and now there is a holistic element to it. Also some heat on who gets accepted there as some stats are not adding up.

As to who ends up going there, it's never 100%. I think they are hoping to get kids that may otherwise go to Pitt and also some OOS kids, is what I hear. OOS apps are down more drastically than in state thus far, and there is a fear that a lot of instate kids may end up going to PItt instead of PSU.

I have seen similar discussions and apparent "discrepancies" in merit awards on other forums. I just read of a student with outstanding stats, 2300 SAT, 10+ AP's, etc. who received no scholarship while others on the thread with numbers not nearly as high received substantial merit aid (~ $20k/yr.). It is frustrating and maybe that student will go elsewhere. That is the cost to the school of their merit award decision. This is just one anecdote, but I see these conversations fairly often. Maybe PSU handled this poorly, I can't comment on that as the data on this forum is very limited. I just think this happens a lot at other schools, too.

Out of curiosity, when does PSU consider you for merit based scholarship? I applied to their accelerated pre-med/medical program and won't know if I'm officially accepted until sometime late March or early April. Also, I was not allowed to apply to SHC because of my application to the other program. Does anyone know how scholarships work in this case then?

Returning to this conversation after a bit of a hiatus. We did not receive a Provost Award, but earlier this week, received a merit award from the College of Liberal Arts in the amount of $4k for the upcoming year. This was awarded based on having "achieved academically at the highest level" and for having an interest in the College of Liberal Arts at Penn State University Park. The award is renewable for the following 3 years and is contingent upon continuous enrollment in the College of Liberal Arts and on aspiring to and maintaining status as a Paterno Fellow. We await a decision from Schreyer as well and are wondering if there is any connection between this award and an offer from Schreyer. We did not apply for the award from the College of Liberal Arts, have not yet submitted financial aid forms, and have not accepted the offer of admission to Penn State.

I think some schools vary their merit offers based upon how much demand there is for certain programs. For example, I'll bet Penn State is offering more merit money right now to College of Liberal Arts majors than engineering, business, IT or nursing majors.

For majors such as education, Penn State is competing for in-state students with state-owned universities that charge 50% less tuition and fees. Private colleges in PA also provide aid that brings them close to Penn State in costs. Meanwhile, a high percentage of Penn State students have traditionally been paying full sticker price.

As of a couple years ago, American University was offering more merit aid to people who said they wanted to be a science major, because their science programs were small and they wanted to expand them.

charlieschum-an admissions counselor I spoke with last week did in fact say that the award was, in part, "departmental". He also said "family history" was taken into account, among "other criteria". He said there has been alot of confusion over this award and that they have received many phone calls regarding it. He stressed that it was not a merit/academic based award (most of us already figured that out). Other academic/merit based awards that everyone is automatically considered for are coming out in March. There are also department-specific awards that students must submit applications for that have various award dates. To clarify, I asked if those notified of their acceptances prior to the award announcement (and also those who deposited prior to the award coming out) were considered and he said yes-the entire applicant pool was considered. I guess it is safe to say the intent of the award was not to solely raise the incoming freshman class stats (GPA/SAT/ACT).

Just bumping this thread, which originated this time last year, to ask if we can now safely assume that Penn State did not renew the Provost's Award scholarship program for those now applying for admission in 2014?

Also wondering if anyone ever figured out exactly what criteria was used in dispensing those awards. As I shared in the PSU forum a few months ago, we know of one young man from an upper middle class family who received the $6,000 a year award, renewable for four years. He did apply early, but he was in state and never filed the FAFSA (although he did have a sibling in college at the time). His stats were in the 3.8 UW GPA, 1750+ SATs range, so a strong student, but not tippy-top and not accepted into Schreyer.

Penn State's admissions are up 20% this year, so perhaps they no longer see the need to entice a certain percentage of students by dangling substantial merit money?

The university reported receiving 45,917 applications from prospective undergraduates in 2013 through November, up nearly 20 percent from the 38,359 received in 2012.

That increase puts application numbers back in line with those of 2010 (44,977) and 2011 (45,932), basically before the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal rocked Penn State.

Has anyone else applied to the Millennium Scholarship a week ago? Accepted PSU UP, premed, but declaring Biology and MD/PhD for Millennium qualifications. They said they will be finalized by 1/31, minimum $15K a year.

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